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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28599246">syncopation</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_at_dawn/pseuds/rain_at_dawn'>rain_at_dawn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>stars, scattered [24]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SHINee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Band Fic, Developing Relationship, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Phone-calls, emotional tension</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:34:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,002</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28599246</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_at_dawn/pseuds/rain_at_dawn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>4. things you said over the phone</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Choi Minho/Kim Jonghyun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>stars, scattered [24]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608877</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>syncopation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompted by @ohayo_hyuna on Twitter</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’m writing a new song.”</p>
<p>The skin on the back of Minho’s neck prickles. The gum he’d been chewing gets squashed into the corner of his mouth as he tries to figure out why. Jonghyun writing songs isn’t anything newsworthy; it’s by now, as SM bluntly puts it, an expectation.</p>
<p>“What’s it about, hyung?”</p>
<p>“I suppose I’ll find out as I go along…”</p>
<p>Vague shit like this is also nothing new from Jonghyun. Whatever it is, Minho knows that Jonghyun could only craft another jewel from that goldmine of a mind he possesses; if only Jonghyun realized it too.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Sodam has come to know, without asking, that Minho always takes two sugars in his coffee and plenty of creamer. He thinks it’s impressive that she’s gleaned that much from his handful of visits and tells her so.</p>
<p>All she does is smile in return while commenting, “It’s not me who’s made the observation.”</p>
<p>“Then who?”</p>
<p>Her smile grows ever so wider, but no less discrete.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Jonghyun’s lips are pursed, red as a pair of cherries. Minho can’t see them over the phone, but his imagination fills in the blanks, picturing them form the words he speaks. It’s the new song that’s keeping Jonghyun up this late at night and it’s bad enough that he needs a set of willing ears to vent to.</p>
<p>“I think I’ll just drop this idol crap and never leave my house. You can sing my songs for me and I’ll live off the royalties forever.”</p>
<p>Minho doesn’t quite know what to say to this, but he’ll try anyway: “I won’t let you off that easily, hyung. You won’t be alone.”</p>
<p>“You’d keep me company at home then?” Jonghyun’s teasing him as usual, seeing how far he can test Minho’s patience. “I won’t ever leave my room.”</p>
<p>“I’ll move right in with you.”</p>
<p>“Aigoo, Minho. It’s going to be a dull existence. You know I’m a night owl. No sunshine at all.”</p>
<p>“That’s what you have me for.”</p>
<p>It just slips out of Minho and he doesn’t know if it’s done any good, judging by the pause on the line. Perhaps he should’ve dropped a joke about being the bad dream that would always rouse Jonghyun from his precious morning lie-ins instead.</p>
<p>But Jonghyun interrupts his train of thought and sends it barreling right off-track.</p>
<p>“Of course you are, Minho. Thank you for reminding me.”</p>
<p>Minho’s breath catches in his throat and his world tilts further off balance.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The MBC parking lot superintendent eyes Minho’s car as he approaches the entrance. The question he poses is good-natured enough, “What goes on to keep you this late, sir?”</p>
<p>It must be hard to tell through the dark; Minho catches his reflection in the rearview mirror just in time, but decides on keeping his smile in place. For as much as it stretches into his cheeks, it’s barely enough to contain his anticipation.</p>
<p>“Just picking up a friend, ahjusshi.”</p>
<p>The man nods, willfully uncomprehending. It’s only the Blue Night crew that are working this late and Minho had already texted their DJ to come find him outside the parking lot. The closing song has just begun, so he contends himself with picturing Jonghyun packing up his notes and things, smoothening his hair and straightening his glasses, scurrying out of the studio to meet him.</p>
<p>He takes another round up the street and back again in an attempt to curb the butterflies in his stomach. Jonghyun was just a dear friend.</p>
<p>Maybe a drive around the block would make that phrase feel right.</p>
<p>Despite Minho’s best efforts, the first sight of Jonghyun’s knowing smile greeting him as he descends the building’s outdoor stops sets the butterflies on fire and the sparks rise up into Minho’s face, burning his cheeks and unsettling his grin.</p>
<hr/>
<p>“Shake me up.” Jonghyun demands.</p>
<p>Minho swallows. “We’re on the phone.”</p>
<p>“So? Get creative.”</p>
<p>It’s crossing one in the morning; no wonder Jonghyun’s being weird. Staying cooped up in room with no windows could do that to anyone. Now here he was, trying to get a rise of Minho to entertain himself.</p>
<p>“You’re just bored, hyung. You need to sleep. What do you want me to do, sing you a lullaby?”</p>
<p>“You’d better sing that lullaby like we were the last living souls on earth.”</p>
<p>He’s been drawn into a corner. Nonetheless, he begins with the first lines of ‘Honesty’, to which Jonghyun protests.</p>
<p>“No, no SHINee, Minho. Just you.”</p>
<p>“Hyung, I can’t come up with songs on the spot like you.”</p>
<p>“I’m asking you to be <em>you</em>. Sing anything you like, even your middle school song and I’ll listen anyway. As long as it’s a part of you.”</p>
<p>Minho wonders what Jonghyun really wants him to say.</p>
<p>He hangs up.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The next afternoon, Jonghyun seeks him out with a flask of homemade coffee, prepared just the way Minho likes it. He’s trying to make amends.</p>
<p>What for is anyone’s guess, let alone Minho’s.</p>
<hr/>
<p>It’s three in the morning and Jonghyun hasn’t called him. Yet. Minho’s mind tacks that last word on regardless of any doubts he harbors. He doesn’t believe in wishes made on distant lights in dark places, but he believes in Jonghyun.</p>
<p>At ten minutes past three, Minho texts him.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘hyung’</em>
</p>
<p>He lets three seconds past before following it up with <em>‘r u awake’.</em></p>
<p>Minho waits and waits. He’s so close to drifting off to sleep himself when the phone rings.</p>
<p>“I’m in Hangang. Yeouido, near the cherry trees.”</p>
<p>Minho leaps out of bed, grabs his keys and takes off.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The streetlights bathe Jonghyun’s profile, highlighting the gleam in his eyes when they meet Minho’s.</p>
<p>“Did you want to talk?” Minho asks him, just to be sure. “I’m ready if you are.”</p>
<p>Jonghyun doesn’t say anything, but offers him his hand instead. Minho takes it, his uncertainties falling away to the breeze that envelopes them, willing to go wherever Jonghyun decides on.</p>
<p>Their steps match up as easily as if they were made to fit.  </p>
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